During the course of our lives, we all sometimes go through this thought that what we are actually doing with it. Majority of us are stuck in the rat race trying to earn more than before in pursuit to accomplish our personal and social needs & desires. Is this how we are supposed and destined to spend the rest of our lives? Most of us accept and keep on living in & around this fact while some take a step forward to discover and explore the unseen. To escape the reality around us, we go on to try and experience new things that would take us away from the stress and day-to-day uninteresting monotonous schedules. We search for adventures, don’t we? It is quite among the blokes around Delhi-NCR to go for river rafting in Uttarakhand, hiking or trekking in the eminent woods of Himachal Pradesh. This sounds exciting and adventures at the same time to someone who is trapped in stressful jobs. An escape from the meetings, presentations, call, emails, reports, reviews etc is go grab thing. For those of you who think that this should suffice your adrenaline requirements, you haven’t actually experienced the mother nature. That’s the beauty of nature around us. A two to a four-day trip to outskirts may be sufficient to fill up your Facebook newsfeed or Instagram story but what if nature doesn’t allow you to go back? While most of us return back to our homes after the so-called expedition while sometimes this is not the case.

Nature is everything that is around us. The hills, the mountains, the glaciers, the sun, the birds, the rivers, the rain, the earthquake, the desert and what not. We as humans are equally responsible for the damage we have done to this earth directly or indirectly. Mother nature has evolved over the years and is currently undergoing numerous silent alterations that we will pay for in the years to come. Nature, what appears to be a blessing to a vacationer may become an unimaginable threat to those who conquer it. We’ve heard thousands of stories and tales about people who went on to challenge their limits but happen to encounter the other side of nature. Seeking for an adventure, we sometimes ignore that fact that it nature who has created us all and not the vice-versa.

There are hundreds and thousands of tutorial videos over the internet demonstrating the ways to combat and survive in different life-threatening situations. There is a never-ending list of tools and equipment available that you must carry along while you’re exploring the unseen. Even after adhering and keeping in mind all the do’s and don’ts, nature traps and never let us free. Imagine going to a different country with your peeps to explore the mangroves and you happen to get lost. Lost and alone. No compass, no internet, not calling network, no sight of civilisation. What would you do in that situation knowing you are surrounded by the wild animals, maybe guerrilla troops are eying on you or let’s just say you slip down a sharp precipitous hill. They’re so many possibilities as to how nature can take your life, yet there are some heroic stories of brave hearts who survived the impossible.

However, we’ve been lucky enough to witness people risking their lives just to demonstrate us how to tackle and overcome unavoidable situations we’re trapped. We’re talking about the survival instructors. So, what does really come into your mind hearing the word “Survival Instructor” or should we say “Who comes in your mind”? We already know the name that you’re thinking of right now – the Man Vs Wild sensation – Mr Bear Grylls. A man who has taught us and always kept us on the edge of our seats during the episodes. This article is a sneak peek about the survival expert and how he got here.

Bear was born in England in the year 1974 (presently 45 years old) to a politician father and in a family of cricketers. He got the nickname “Bear” when he was just a year old by his elder sibling Lara. Since his childhood, Bear was always curious and ready to try & experience new things. Be it learning how to climb and sail at a very young age or tying his hands-on skydiving and earning a black belt in Karate. At the moment, Bear is married to Shara and has three kids. You would be surprised to know that Bear speak English, Spanish and French fluently. Bear is an explorer, television presenter, an author, motivational speaker, television producer, businessman and of course, an adventurer. After graduating with his bachelor’s degree, Bear hiked the Himalayas and served the British Army from 1994 to 1997. After becoming the survival instructor, he was posted to parts of North America, twice; where he happened to broke his three vertebras when his parachute didn’t open. Through his military career, Bear’s contribution has been recognised and has been awarded an honorary rank in Royal Naval Reserve (the volunteer naval reserve force of the United Kingdom).

Bear gained his stardom through his renowned television show “Man Vs Wild” wherein he demonstrates the survival tactics in the wild. Doing what he does take some balls to do and he makes sure to be paid well for that. It is believed that he charges a whopping amount of $ 30,000 per episode and has an estimated net worth of $ 6 million. Maybe not enough for putting all at stake i.e. his precious life.

Moving forward to his achievements, let’s take a look at his extraordinary journey what made him who he is today. In 1998, Bear climbed Mount Everest in Nepal right after 18 months of breaking his vertebrae in a parachute accident. In 2000, he rowed naked in a bathtub in order to raise funds for a friend who met with an accident while climbing. In 2003, he along with his five other teammates crossed the North Atlantic Ocean. In 2005, created a world record organising an open-air dinner at 7,600 meters above the ground. In the following years, he did multiple fundraisers. And the list goes on and on.

Just like anyone else, even Bear couldn’t ignore the media. He did multiple television shows and appeared on numerous talk shows. The Oprah Winfrey Show, Friday Night with Jonathan Ross, Late Night with Conan O’Brien, Jimmy Kimmel Live, to name a few. Bear has written many books such as The Kid Who Climbed Everest, Facing the Frozen Ocean, Born Survivor and Bear Gryll’s Outdoor Adventures. Apart from this, he released his autobiography in 2012, “Mud, Sweat and Tears: The Autobiography”.

What Bear has accomplished in this few spans of time is remarkable and extraordinary to any average being. We’ve been fortunate enough to witness what this guy has achieved over the past few years. Come, let us cherish how much he has contributed to the entertainment and get amazed with some mind-boggling facts about Bear:

1. His real name is Edward Michael Grylls.
2. At the age of 34, he becomes the youngest chief scout in the United Kingdom.
3. Bear lives in a remote island of Wales with his family.
4. Interestingly, he has eaten various things which may sound gross to us such as live snakes, frozen yak eyeballs, camel intestine juice, giant spiders, maggots and what not.
5. He uses his fame to contribute and raise funds. Over time, he has helped to raise about $ 2.5 million for the children.
6. Man VS Wild went on to become No 1 cable show in all of America, reaching a global audience of over 1.2 billion viewers, in over 200 countries.
7. It took him 90 days to reach the top of the Mount Everest.